There are smart ways and dumb ways to fire someone. If you’re going to fire someone because of their behaviour in the workplace, you can take some steps to do this in a smarter way from both a psychological and legal way. Keep in mind this is not legal advice but it is good advice.

First, use the Team Habit Builder along with the employee. Start with a discussion of a shared purpose. When it comes to problematic behaviour in the workplace, you can usually use “the employee succeeding” as a shared purpose. That is, both you and the employee want the employee to succeed.

Then come up with a list of toward and away behaviours for the employee. For any behaviour you list that they should not do, e.g. “don’t swear at others in office meetings”, you must come up with a do-instead behavior, e.g. “instead of swearing at others in office meetings, take a time out and leave the meeting”.

Make sure the toward moves are clear, straightforward, and something the employee thinks they can do. It’s not helpful to list things like “be respectful” – you need to clarify from a behavioural perspective what that means. It could be taking a time out instead of yelling at a team member.

Next, clarify what the employee needs to do to stay employed (the carrot) and what will result in firing (the stick). For example, you might say: for the next six weeks the employee agrees to work on the shared purpose remediation plan by engaging in towards moves and/or acknowledging away moves. There needs to be an increase in toward moves by the end of the 6 weeks. If not, the employee may be terminated. Get the employee to sign this document so everyone is clear on the expectations and the consequences.

Then, track away moves, away moves that were acknowledged as mistakes, and the toward moves. People can’t change their habits overnight. They need a period of practice and the ability to make mistakes. The difference is that they have to acknowledge their mistakes and repair relationships immediately if needed.

Sometimes the behaviour is so egregious that the employee should just be fired. In which case, make sure you have good policy and proof the employee understood the policy in place.